Black – Page 2 – YA Pride

An Open Letter From You

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:10-05:00July 1st, 2017|Categories: Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs|Tags: Black, Non Binary, PoC, Recovery|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 15 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by Cam Montgomery The first time you kiss a girl, you’re twenty-two-years-old. A college junior, majoring in two things that’d make you spiritually rich, but broke in the pockets. Young, queer, and naïve, is what they call that. You call it living. Oh, the girl? You’re still friends. (On Facebook.) And she, to this day, doesn’t know she was “your first.” All the same, you remind yourself, constantly, that you owe her more than you’re willing to admit. She, this femme with the eyes like whoa and the hair [...]

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How Reading Got Me Through My Teens And Beyond

By Daisy|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 29th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Black, Latinx, Non Binary|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 13 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by EC King Depression and anxiety have always run deeply in my veins. These issues are hereditary in my case and, though they are not my constant companions, they are definitely frequent visitors. Even though I was a privileged, seemingly happy and rambunctious child, I remember clearly the days or weeks when I felt a malaise that I didn’t know how to describe. I called it “being bored”, as I lay in bed staring listlessly out the window without even a book to keep me company, or as [...]

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The Power of Stories: Saving Lives and Connecting Readers, One Book at a Time
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The Power of Stories: Saving Lives and Connecting Readers, One Book at a Time

Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs, New Releases, Writers on Writing

The Power of Stories: Saving Lives and Connecting Readers, One Book at a Time

By Ariel|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 22nd, 2017|Categories: Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs, New Releases, Writers on Writing|Tags: Black, Middle Grade, nonbinary, PoC, Queer Girls|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 10 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by Kheryn Callender I didn't like myself very much when I was younger. I was the only black student in my private school for a few years, and whenever I left my school, which was deep in the countryside where many white people from the states lived, I was surrounded by locals from St. Thomas who thought I acted too snobby, who thought I spoke with a stateside accent because I didn’t love my island, who thought I acted too “white.” It seemed wherever I went, whichever community [...]

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“That Which Does Not Kill Us”

By Ariel|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 21st, 2017|Categories: Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs|Tags: Black, PoC, Queer Girls|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 9 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by L.D. Lewis It’s 2017 and the world is on fire. Whatever day it is you’re reading this, you probably woke up lost and groaning. Maybe while staring at the ceiling or at nothing in particular in the mirror, you idly pondered what sort of distant, existential crisis would manifest itself in a very real threat to your being today and if/how you would react to it. Survive it. After all, yesterday [wasn’t so bad/was utter trash]. How much should you reasonably be expected to endure? Disclaimer: I [...]

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“An Anchor to Guide Them”: On the Importance of LGBTQIA+ Media

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 10th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Writers on Writing|Tags: Black, Intersectionality, Queer Girls|

Pride Month Blogathon: Day 4 – Introduction to Pride Month Blogathon by Kiana Nguyen I kissed my first girlfriend in 2011 when I was 18, and it was the first kiss that held my entire heart. I was excited, I was anxious, I was so happy to finally have them in my arms I felt close to bursting. I was so scared of finally feeling real that I wanted to run. Kissing Casey*, who later came out as genderqueer and trans, was an experience so unreal and so right, I felt starved for the joy that rushed through [...]

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Let’s Push For More Nuanced Bi+ Representation

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:34-05:00September 22nd, 2016|Categories: Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Writers on Writing|Tags: Bisexual, Black, Intersectionality, Religion|

Bisexual Awareness Week Series Day #2 – Previous Posts: Introduction -- Duality, YA, and Crumpled Stickers by Angélique Gravely I didn't start actively reading LGBTQ+ YA until I was almost a college graduate. By that time, I had more or less accepted my bisexual attractions and my desire to be a YA writer so I dove into LGBTQ+ YA in search of inspiration for the queer stories I now felt drawn to write and, in all honesty, in search of reflections of parts of myself and my story I hadn't been able to acknowledge as a teen. While [...]

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If You Haven’t Seen

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:37-05:00June 22nd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Teachers & Librarians|Tags: Asian, Black, Intersectionality, Latin@|

by Edith Campbell Back in October 2015 my daughter shared news with me about the book Large Fears by Myles Johnson and Kendrick Daye and I was so excited that I posted about it on FaceBook. I was easily engaged by the artwork and intrigued by the story of a young black boy who daydreamed about escaping to Mars where he could be free to love the color pink. Just above the image of the book, I wrote, “I'm really glad to know about this book! I would say there are so few books for queer black boys, but [...]

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Never Am I Whole

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:37-05:00June 18th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices, Writers on Writing|Tags: Black, Intersectionality, Mental Health, nonbinary, Representation|

by Wesaun There’s nothing more exciting than the prospect of finally seeing myself in the books I read except, oh wait, I never do. I look and look and search and search and all that meets me is a gap, all that meets me is the laughter track as if I am on a comedy show and I am the queer character that has just had a cruel trick played on them. All that meets me is parts of my identity dismembered and separated into different stories but never am I whole. Because according to books, I do [...]

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On Love in a Dystopian Time: A Call to ([White] Queer) YA Authors About #BlackLivesMatter

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:31-05:00August 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Black, Intersectionality, Representation|

by Jennifer Polish As authors (us too, fan fic writers!), aspiring authors, and readers of YA literature, many of us are often thinking about the meanings of love in dystopian societies. Katniss’s protectiveness of Rue, of Prim. Peeta’s devotion to Katniss. Tris and Christina. Tris and Four. Lucky and Digory. Loup and Pilar. David and Callan. But, as YA enthusiasts, it is also our responsibility to think long and to think hard on love in this dystopian time. Because if you go to buy Skittles while Black, or if you love someone who does; if you attend a [...]

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Cover Reveal + Interview: Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:33-05:00June 24th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Cover Reveal|Tags: Bisexual, Black, Historical, PoC, Queer Girls|

We are HUGE fans of Robin Talley's debut novel Lies We Tell Ourselves. Today, we are THRILLED to reveal the gorgeous new cover that this fantastic book will soon be getting! We also got to talk to Robin Talley and her kick ass editor T.S. Ferguson about the cover redesign, representation, and Robin's forthcoming projects. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (Harlequin Teen, 2014) Lies We Tell Ourselves UK Version (MIRA Ink, 2014) In 1959 Virginia, the lives [...]

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